12 August 1999

Department of Commerce Circles the Globe with Y2K Conferences

(Self-Help CD-ROM is key tool) (670)
By Lisa Marie Kowalski
USIA Staff Writer

http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=99081204.glt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

Washington -- The Department of Commerce has undertaken an initiative to help small- and medium-size enterprises prepare for the Year 2000 problem.

Over the last five months the department, in cooperation with the United States Information Agency, the Department of Transportation and the Department of State, has participated in 39 conferences in 21 countries to spread awareness of the issue.

Commerce's conferences focus on disseminating information and distributing a self-help assessment tool developed especially for smaller firms. The assessment tool is included on a CD-ROM, prepared with support from the department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The tool helps organizations evaluate their exposure to the Y2K problem and devise contingency and remediation plans. The software program was designed as a management tool, not as a technical solution to the Y2K phenomenon.

Commerce is focusing on smaller firms because they account for 80-90 percent of the businesses in the economies of most countries.

Tu-Trang Phan from Commerce's Y2K Outreach Program said in an interview that the best way to help the world's smaller firms prepare for Y2K is through exchanging information with one another and learning what others are doing to prepare for Y2K. Phan, who has participated in several of the international Y2K events, emphasized that Commerce, USIA and State's goal has been to establish open dialogue between the U.S. government and host governments that encourages a trusting relationship and mutual respect for each other's Y2K efforts.

Phan explained that there have been three types of conferences. The first primarily concentrates on the Y2K Self-Help Tool CD-ROM, taking the participants through the assessment program step-by-step. The second is a workshop-intensive conference in which the participants are given hands-on training regarding Y2K planning. The third type is an informative style conference, in which guest speakers provide in-depth information on specific topics.

The conference series resulted from a November meeting that was held in Moscow coordinated by the American Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USIA and Commerce.

The first conference of the series was held in Shanghai, China, on March 31, at which Secretary of Commerce William Daley delivered the opening remarks. The conference series has allowed U.S. and foreign government speakers and private industry experts to share their knowledge on how to deal with the Y2K issue with audiences ranging from 40 to 450 participants.

Most of the conferences have been conducted in a single day. The CD-ROM has been distributed during conferences in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Accra, Ghana; Taipei, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, Korea; Beijing, China; and Moscow, Russia, plus sites in many more countries. A total of 73,000 have been distributed internationally.

The CD-ROM is available in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Each individual CD-ROM contains versions in English and one other language.

Commerce also is working on a Rapid Response Tool that will be a follow-up software program to help users respond to Y2K failures.

Commerce has produced a ten-minute video featuring Secretary Daley and well-known experts on Y2K. The video describes the Y2K issue, its implications, and the need for remediation and contingency planning. The Department has also produced and distributed a 57-minute long broadcast video, "Y2K, Preparing for the Challenge," which provides a more in-depth analysis of the issue from the perspective of 22 experts from around the world.

The information from the Y2K Self-Help Tool CD-ROM may be downloaded off the Commerce web page in all available languages at

http://www.doc.gov/y2k/

or may be found on the International Trade Administration's Y2K web site at

http://www.y2k.ita.doc.gov

Further information on Y2K may be obtained by calling 301-784-9090.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), August 13, 1999